Logging In with Your Heartbeat

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Smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and other devices may soon
recognize their owners at a touch. The gadgets will identify
users by measuring their heartbeats through their fingertips.

"ECG biometrics identifies people by their cardiac rhythm," said
Foteini Agrafioti, an engineer at the University of Toronto who
developed a version of the technology and started a
company, Bionym, to market it.
"Not just their heart rate, but the actual shape of their
heartbeat."

Such a heartbeat ID, embedded into a phone or tablet, could lock
out unauthorized users or bring up individuals' saved preferences
on a shared device, say researchers who study the technology.
Heartbeats could be a secure alternative — or supplement — to
more established biological ID measures, such as fingerprints.
And unlike some futuristic
identification schemes, heartbeat IDs are technologically
ready to go.

Whether the tech takes off now depends on whether customers will
take to getting identified by their hearts.

The unique shape of your heart

When pictured in a graph called an electrocardiogram (ECG), human
heartbeats all share the same general shape, each beat
represented by the up-and-down spike familiar from medical
dramas.

For generations, doctors measured that spike by sticking sensors
on people's chests. Recently, however, researchers have developed
cheap, thin sensors that are able to measure ECGs through the
fingertips. People just need to touch the sensors for a few
seconds, using one finger from each hand. The finger sensors have
made it possible to embed heartbeat measurements into smartphones
and other devices, although they aren't precise enough for
doctors' diagnoses. [ Wearable
Electronics Pave Way for Smart Surgeon Gloves ]

Meanwhile, engineers have found that the exact shape of ECG
spikes varies from person to person. Everyone has his or her own
unique shape, which remains even during heart rate changes caused
by excitement or exercise. That shape also stays the same over
time.

Different ECG-analyzing computer programs have slightly different
accuracy rates, but in general, they're accurate enough to work
as ID systems on their own, Agrafioti said. The Bionym website
suggests using its "HeartID" for the military and police
officers.

Ana Fred, an engineer at the Technical University of Lisbon in
Portugal also researching this technology, doesn't agree ECGs are
ready for higher-security uses. Fingerprinting is still more
accurate, she said. However, it should be possible to bring
heartbeat analysis up to par by combining different analysis
techniques, which Fred is studying. "In the end, I think we will
be able to use it as a standalone," she said.

Heartbeats for backup

If airports or other high-security locations don't want to depend
on heartbeats alone, they can combine ECG measurements with other
ID checks, such as fingerprint scanners, said Adrian Chan, an
engineer at Carleton University in Canada who has built ECG ID
systems. An ECG sensor could go right into a fingerprint scanner,
boosting the scanner's accuracy.

The sensor would also ensure the person making the print is
alive. "You watch any type of spy movie or anything like that,
and people just chop off your finger" to get through a
fingerprint scanner, Chan said. He also pointed to a study from
2010 in which researchers fooled a fingerprint scanner by lifting
an authorized person's fingerprints off the scanner's surface and
making gelatin
fingers to match.

Researchers interviewed by TechNewsDaily weren't sure how often
such spoofing happens in real life, but agreed that heartbeat
sensors would make such tricks much more difficult. "In my
opinion, it offers airtight security," Agrafioti said. "[Your
heartbeat] is hidden in your body. It's impossible for someone to
steal it from you."

A heart-activated key

In less critical situations, all the researchers agreed heartbeat
ID would work well on its own. Agrafioti has created a key card
that users activate by holding it for a few seconds with both
hands. Such a card couldn't be made to recognize other biological
characteristics, such as fingerprints or faces, because those
biometrics require too much processing power, she said.

ECGs could pull up users' accounts on a shared computer,
video-game console or stair-stepper at the gym, Fred said. Those
machines could then automatically go to the user's preferred
settings, saved game or workout difficulty. [ Futuristic
Security Schemes Could Kill Passwords ]

"Any device you hold with both hands, such as an iPad or
smartphone, can all very much do ECG recognition," Agrafioti
said.

Heartbeat sensors are technically ready for market, Agrafioti,
Chan and Fred all say. Agrafioti's Bionym is looking for
commercial partners now, with engineers waiting to see if the
technology takes off among consumers.

ECG's success depends on whether people feel it's easy to use,
Chan thinks. "The user wants to have a certain feeling of
security, but not at the cost of their convenience," he said.
Fingerprint sensors are also commercially available, but aren't
common in consumer products like laptops, he added.

For Agrafioti, it's a question of telling people about the
technology. "You have to get it out there. It's a new idea.
People have to see it first before they can trust it," she said.
"I believe that once it's out there, it really solves a lot of
problems that we have today with other biometric systems."

This story is part of a series about exotic biometrics —
unexpected ways that researchers are working on to identify
people by their biological features. "It is important to keep
track of the new/unusual/not-yet-much-studied things, because
this is where the next big things come from," Kevin Bowyer, chair
of the computer science and engineering department at the
University of Notre Dame, told TechNewsDaily. "Of course, most
exotic things never become big. But history says that some
will."

Bowyer served as a reviewer for a biometrics conference held
Sept. 24 through Sept. 26. He helped choose some of the research
we'll examine in this series, which will not feature his own
work.

His own area of expertise, iris scanning, was considered
exotic 20 years ago, he added.